A Decision: Dlink DNS-321 vs. DNS-323

[boggsie]

First off, 90 minutes ago I knew very, very little about NAS. Thanks to this web site and fourms, I feel that I am informed well enough to keep from making a regretable and costly mistake.

With the help of the resources on this site, I narrowed my candidates down to the D-Link DNS-321 vs. the DNS-323.

I read the quick comparison:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30520/79/

and both full reviews
DNS-321: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30521/75/
DNS-323: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29671/75/

Ultimately, I decided on the DNS-323. BuyDig has it on sale for $145 and there is a D-Link rebate for $20 which works with selected online retailers. BuyDig is one of these retailers.

All said and done, it will end up costing me $129 for what I feel is a very good decision.

I wanted to post this, primarily as a thank you to the folks who run this web site.

Best regards,
-boggsie

 

[thiggins]

Glad to help. Remember, RAID is not a substitute for backup. Never trust all of your data to a single device.

 

[boggsie]

... and I would add: never trust your backup to a single tape.

back in the day, I had a raid-5 array degrade and before I could swap in a replacement disk, another drive failed ... bummer

no worries, my trusty tape will restore my data ... bummer

RAID-1
BACKUP
TEST BACKUP MEDIA

Thanks again!

Best regards,
-boggsie

 

[Warlord46]

DNS-321 not a gigabit device

I noted on D-Link's website that the specifications for the DNS-321 and DNS-323 differ significantly: the DNS-321 specifications do not list the gigabit ethernet standard as one it is compatible with. The box my DNS-321 came in lists under "features" that the DNS-321 has "high speed gigabit ethernet connectivity." After much wasted time with first level DLink technicians, I asked for and spoke with a Senior Level Technician, who quickly confirmed that the DNS-321 is not gigabit capable, confirmed that the claim for gigabit ethernet connectivity on the DNS-321 box is wrong, and recommended that I return the product for the DNS-323, which he said was gigabit ethernet capable.

I looked into this issue when I found the DNS-321 was not capable of streaming video without interruption over my gigabit ethernet network.

 

[thiggins]

Unless D-Link has changed the design, the 321 does have a gigabit Ethernet NIC (Marvell 88E1118-NNC1).

And the test results show higher performance with a gigabit connection and even higher with 4k jumbo frames.

I will double check with D-Link and post back.

 

[thiggins]

From D-Link:
"Rest assured that the DNS-321 is definately Gigabit."

If you are having a problem with streaming, it is not because the 321 can't support gigabit Ethernet.

 

[Warlord46]

The guy you spoke with would have to explain the DLink website discrepancy, and why one of his best techs is wrong, before I would be satisfied with his reply. At this point, I don't know whom to rely on from DLink. Regardless, this forum's test results demontrates the DNS-321 is gigabit capable, which is what I was trying to find out when I reviewed the DLink website, found the problem, and called them on it.

I wonder if this is a case where DLink did not adhere to the gigabit spec in the DNS-321 in order to improve performance over the DNS 323. If so, that might make it possible for the DLink website, the Senior Tech, this forum's test results, and the guy you spoke with to all be accurate.

I'll keep looking for where my streaming problem lies.

 

[thiggins]

It's more a case of simple omission / sloppiness on the spec and a misinformed tech. Neither is unusual in the consumer electronics business.

 

[Bryan]

I've been thinking about getting this for awhile and pairing two 1.5tb drives in it. Can someone tell me if it truly supports 1.5tb drives with the new 1.01 firmware?

I saw a comment on newegg saying "1.5TB not supported even with F/W 1.01. Both HDD shows as 500GB " but on the offical patch from d-link it says "Support 1.5TB HDD".

So I'm just trying to figure out which is correct. Also, can anyone tell me if that latest patch solved the problem with settings not resetting?

 

[Warlord46]

Bryan -- I bought the DNS-321 and two 1.5tb barracuda drives 3 weeks ago and set them up as a RAID 1 array. They work fine. It took over an hour to format the drives, which it does one at a time. The utility hangs at 94% progress (a false report as it turns out), which made me think it had choked on the size, and a call to tech support "confirmed" it, telling me the DNS-321 could not work with such large drives. The DLink website says a 94% hang means you need a firmware upgrade, but I had done that already and mine was up to date, so it was no help either.

But just when I was getting ready to depower the unit ready to box it back up, I noticed the left drive light was solid blue, and the right one was pink. I shut it down anyway, and then read up on what the lights meant - blue meant up and running! When I repowered the unit, the left drive was reported as fully formatted with 1.5 tb available - the light was right, the tech wrong. So I just restarted the format process, and after 45 minutes the right drive was solid blue and formatted too, and my RAID was ready to go.

My network sees it as a 1.5tb drive, which now has quite a bit of my stuff on it. My network doesn't stream video well from it, though, which I am now trying to figure out why. I thought it was the NAS, but after posts in this thread, I think it's something else. In which case, the DNS-321 works better than even DLink seems to know.

 

[Bryan]

Thank you for confirming that it does support the drives for me Warlord.

You might want to check out d-link's msg board about the streaming issue. If it isn't the nas drive it might be your router. Then again who knows this thing has more holes than swiss cheese from what I've read about it.

 

[Ajsqlserver]

Has anyone achieved simple file write speed that proves gigabit speed

Has anyone ever achieved a simple large file write speed on this device that proves that this device is gigabit capable?
I am not sure if it works beyond 100 MBPS but am doubting myself after reading so many people saying it does work.
I know the drive write speed limits and what nots so let us please focus on a real life test.
Please pick a large file ( > 1GB) and copy it on this device on any one HDD ( 7200 RPM) and let me know how long it takes when connected using a 1 GBPS vs. 100 MBPS connection.

Thanks

Aj

From D-Link:
"Rest assured that the DNS-321 is definately Gigabit."

If you are having a problem with streaming, it is not because the 321 can't support gigabit Ethernet.

 

[thiggins]

Has anyone ever achieved a simple large file write speed on this device that proves that this device is gigabit capable?

Look at 1000 Mbps NAS Chart tests, throughput vs. filesize. Both the DNS-323 and 321 exceed 12.5 MB/s (100 Mbps).

Remember that just because a device has a gigabit LAN, that doesn't mean that it runs at full gigabit speed.

 

[Ajsqlserver]

I had tried this large-file-copy-operation using a "DIR 655" router and an idle Workstation with wired gigabit conneciton to copy a 1 GB file on the DNS-321 with a 500 GB blank formatted single HDD (ST3500320NS) and could not achive beyond 9.8 mb/s.
Then I Did the same experiment with another older router with 100 MBPS connection.

The performance was same for 1 GBPS conneciton vs. 100 MBPS connection.

I like this device but am not sure if it is really performing beyond 100 MBPS connection speed at all.
That also brings up the question if moving to DNS 323 is even worthwhile or not, if we believe that HDDs are not cabaple of writing beyond this speed which I think should not be the case. This HDD is surely rated for higher mb/s (on the web)

 

[parallon]

Can I attach to a Domain

Hello all. Is it possible to attach either the DNS-321 or the DNS-323 to a domain? I went throught their emulator and it looked like it wanted to attach it to a Workgroup.

Also, are the drives formatted as NTFS or FAT? Any issues with heat?

Thanks for your time,

Mike

 

[thiggins]

No to joining domains. Drives are EXT2 or 3 (with newer firmware).

I don't have enough long-term experience with either product to comment on heat problems.

 

[parallon]

So, there is no way at all for my servers (on domain) to see this drive, even if I don't use any of the FTP or any other functionality? I just want Acronis to be able to use this as storage for backups, not as a file server.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[thiggins]

Joining AD or NT domains just allows the NAS to use domain authentication mechanisms.
Both products support SMB/CIFS and their shares will be available to anything that can speak it.

 

[parallon]

Cool! Thank you for your info.

Mike

 

[pbls]

i have to enable Jumbo frames in the motherboard NICs and router too.And the you probably have 22mb/s